Tuesday 17th of March
St Patrick
“Go and say whatever I command you and do not fear.”
Jeremiah 1:4-9
We celebrate today the great missionary spirit of St Patrick. In a special way today, let us take a moment to recall those people who came to us and evangelised us. Where would we be today if God had not sent out someone to us? In the same way, we too can make a difference to another person’s life, if we go out of ourselves for them. By rite of our baptism, like the prophet Jeremiah, we also received this call to a mission through the Word spoken to us.
When God calls, we are not already a formed disciple of Jesus. God does not call the qualified but qualifies those called. God tells us today, as he spoke to Jeremiah, “before I formed you, before you were born, I appointed you.” We can all feel inadequate and even make our objections: “I’m too young, I’m too old, I don’t know how to speak, I am too busy.” It is a question of trusting God and going to those he calls us to, to give the Word that touches us to them.
On this feast of St Patrick, live this day with a sense of mission and purpose, and “go out” of yourself today to that person God has been asking you to go to.